Chapter 8: Trading Barbs
The expedition had been a total shitshow from the very start.
Eleonora grimaced, her fingers blurring with the motions for [Lesser Healing]. As the spell completed, she sent the energy toward Jack's injured sword arm where it dangled at his side. Nearby, Rudolf released another arrow at the last comically oversized rat clinging to Jack's shield as he frantically waved it around with his good arm. The creature squealed in pain and fury as the shaft sank deep into its side, an unnervingly green liquid dripping from its maw. But it refused to die.
Her spell took effect, and the wound began to close over. The effects of whatever paralytic toxin the rat spewed also seemed to abate, and Jack began to shake the numbness from his arm as Rudolf hit the monster with another arrow.
Eleonora grimaced. Her healing could only do so much against poisons and toxins, which they'd been running into far too often in this forest. What she really needed was some sort of cleansing skill. It was one of the many reasons they should have turned back days ago. But no. After all, they'd just earned their first stars as Iron Rank adventurers, so clearly they were ready to take on the world. And besides, the Evergreen Seas was a supposedly low-level area. Even encountering the shadow panthers two full days before they were supposed to find any monsters wasn't a bigdeal—they could just push through. At least, that's what their fearless leader Jack insisted.
At this point, she was well past fed up with his overconfidence. There was clearly something wrong here, anyone with eyes could see that. Either those stories of elves keeping the monsters around here in check were entirely made up, or something had sent them packing. Her worries getting brushed off because, since they'd come this far, they might as well keep going… well, it very nearly made her blow her top.
Eleonora kept this to herself as she immediately began casting another spell. After this encounter, she would make sure they left. That, or headed back to the road, the one they were supposed to be following, even if she had to drag her bullheaded teammates there. Thank the gods it was nearby. At least, it was supposed to be. None of them were particularly good at reading a map, and this forest looked the same in every direction.
Jack slammed his shield into the ground, finally knocking the beast off. But if anything, that made the situation worse. Now the creature was free to run around as Jack tried to position himself between it, their archer, and their healer.
It darted toward her, beady eyes narrowed as it screeched again. She couldn't help but let out a squeak of panic as she pointed at it, casting the [Mana Bolt] she'd been preparing. A small ball of prismatic energy shot forward from her hand. The rat took the impact straight in the face, stumbling backwards in surprise.
Rudolf took advantage of the opportunity to loose a [Quickshot] into its thick hide. Jack tackled it a moment later, drawing a dagger from his belt to stab into the thing's head. The rat twitched a few more times, then went still.